Combat skills determine how you fight. How effective and your style.
They are distributed among 3 types of skills:
Attack
Increases hitchance, damage and crit chance.
Defense (not to be confused with the skill defense)
Increases evade, damage reduction, health, regen and parry rates.
Mastery
Determines your type of attack. Every character must have at least 1 mastery.
Skill list
Attack
Anatomy: Increases the damage done by physical attacks.
Combat Tactics: Increases the hit chance of your physical attacks.
Fury Control: Increases the critical hit chance of your physical attacks.
Spirit Control: Increases the critical hit chance of your magical attacks.
Magic Focus: Increases the hit chance of your magical attacks.
Concentration: Increases the damage of your magical attacks.
Defense
Blocking: Increase the chance to block an incoming magical or physical attack with an equipped shield. (IMPORTANT: you must have a shield equipped or this skill does nothing.) You only take 25% of the damage.
Magic Resist: Decreases the damage received from magical attacks. Unstated effect: Gives a % of damage reduction to all Damage over Time (DoT) abilities or disciplines.
First Aid: Allows characters to regenerate health points each combat turn. It heals 20% of first aid if you get hit and 100% if you don't get hit.
Endurance: Increases Health.
Dodging: Increases the chance to dodge an attack once hit. You take no damage.
Defense: Decreases the hit chance of enemy attacks. Thus taking no damage.
Parrying: Increases the chance to parry a physical or magical attack with your equipped weapon. You take no damage and attack the enemy.
A note about dodge and parry: Parrying will allow you to counter an attack with your weapon (normal attack) while receiving no damage. Dodge does the same but sacrifices the counter for more chance of receiving no damage.
Mastery
Each mastery increases the hit chance of the corresponding weapons/disciplines and gives access to learning the included Disciplines.
Close Combat: Dagger Warrior skill. Daggers, saps, smashers and rippers.
Swordsmanship: Sword Warrior skill. Swords, spears and halberds.
Mace Fighting: Mace Warrior skill. Maces and Axes.
Holy Wisdom: Holy Wizard skill. Holy staffs.
Frost Dominance: Frost Wizard skill. Frost staffs.
Fire Dominance: Fire Wizard skill. Fire staffs.
Dark Knowledge: Dark Wizard skill. Dark staffs.
Block/Parry/Dodge/Defense Estimations by Frostblight
(Note, these are estimations and examples of minimum and maximum values)
Parry : 5% - 25%
Dodge : 10% - 30%
Block : 30% - 50%
Defense : 30% - 55%